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Executive and Legislative documents laid before the General Assembly of North-Carolina [1874; 1875]

187^75.] Document No. 7. 35
upon the State the burden of his future care through years of
helplessness and dependence. The idea of converting an
asylum into a tread-mill of forced labor, should be reprobated
by every one with a heart of feeling, or who has an afflicted
friend, or who knows not whetlier the next week or the next
year may witness in himself another of the innumerable victims
of insanity, by sudden and resistless accident, or wasting
disease, or overpowering calamity and sorrow.
Let such a proposition be banished from society among all
enlightened and humane people.
A CURATIVE HOSPITAL THE ONLY PROPEK PROVISION FOR THE
INSANE.
As a distinguished writer has observed : " The best arrange-ment
for all the material purposes of a large asylum, so far as
a good experience gees, is that of connected buildings, either
under one roof, or so adjacent and communicating by protected
passages that they may all be readily accessible, at a moment's
warning, by the superintendent and attendants, without ex-posure
to the weather ; and that all necessary transfers or re-movals
of patients may be promptly made without a like ex-posure,
and without much observation." * *
The compactness and order of such an arrangement, as com-pared
with detached buildings, (on the pavilion plan,) call them
cottages or what you will, is so advantageous for economy of
structure, of repairs, of supervision, of attendance, of removals,
of classification, of recreation and diversion, and of household
service, that such circumstances should give it, as they have
done in this country, a decided preference.
The Superintendent of the Alabama Institutlcn for the In-sane,
Dr. Bryce, uses language in defining the work of a
properly organized hospital, which I condense as follows
:
"The abnormal mental manifestation, which we call in-sanity,
is the result, in every case, of a diseased condition of
the brain, just as shortness of breath results from a deposition

187^75.] Document No. 7. 35
upon the State the burden of his future care through years of
helplessness and dependence. The idea of converting an
asylum into a tread-mill of forced labor, should be reprobated
by every one with a heart of feeling, or who has an afflicted
friend, or who knows not whetlier the next week or the next
year may witness in himself another of the innumerable victims
of insanity, by sudden and resistless accident, or wasting
disease, or overpowering calamity and sorrow.
Let such a proposition be banished from society among all
enlightened and humane people.
A CURATIVE HOSPITAL THE ONLY PROPEK PROVISION FOR THE
INSANE.
As a distinguished writer has observed : " The best arrange-ment
for all the material purposes of a large asylum, so far as
a good experience gees, is that of connected buildings, either
under one roof, or so adjacent and communicating by protected
passages that they may all be readily accessible, at a moment's
warning, by the superintendent and attendants, without ex-posure
to the weather ; and that all necessary transfers or re-movals
of patients may be promptly made without a like ex-posure,
and without much observation." * *
The compactness and order of such an arrangement, as com-pared
with detached buildings, (on the pavilion plan,) call them
cottages or what you will, is so advantageous for economy of
structure, of repairs, of supervision, of attendance, of removals,
of classification, of recreation and diversion, and of household
service, that such circumstances should give it, as they have
done in this country, a decided preference.
The Superintendent of the Alabama Institutlcn for the In-sane,
Dr. Bryce, uses language in defining the work of a
properly organized hospital, which I condense as follows
:
"The abnormal mental manifestation, which we call in-sanity,
is the result, in every case, of a diseased condition of
the brain, just as shortness of breath results from a deposition